Monday, September 16, 2013

T
his is Ian's second Onam. Last year,Appan & Amma were here with us and our celebrations started and ended at the Malayali Association's sadya. But this year,it was an ongoing event starting from the Malayali Association's sadya. I even participated in a dance for the opening ceremony at the association.It was such a break from my routine and truck loads of fun. We ate 3 sadya's this year but I cooked only for one and that too, a potluck.

I've never cooked a complete Onam sadya yet. We usually have it in a potluck form, which I think is the best. Nobody has to cook up a storm,especially when it comes to a sadya! Also, everyone gets to tastes different versions of every item. Once the date is set, a group email is sent out as to what everyone is supposed to bring or would like to bring and then the excitement builds in me!

After every sadya,I feel so stuffed mostly because I overate even though I knew what my situation would be at the end. This time, it was no different. I was so full that I couldn't even put Ian Vaava to sleep after that. I couldn't hold him close enough because I felt my stomach would burst! So Jobin came to the rescue...ahh!

The colour of this pradhaman totally depends on how light or dark your jaggery is.Mine was very pale and so it reflected in the final product. So,I've made up my mind to hunt for darker ones the next time I am making it.So here's my trusted recipe.

Method: In a heavy bottomed pan, roast the moong dal until it turns pale brown/reddish in colour.It will get fragrant at this point.Add water and cook until soft.Mash it with the back of a spoon and add the melted & strained jaggery and 1 tablespoon ghee.Cook stirring until it starts to bubble up, thicken & leaves behind a line if you draw one with a spoon. Add the thin coconut milk and the spices and continue cooking,stirring occasionally until it thickens up.Switch off the heat and add the thick coconut milk. Stir to combine.Fry the coconut slices & cashews in the remaining ghee until golden brown and pour over the hot pradhaman. Serve hot,warm or even chilled.

You most likely will have to adjust the consistency once the pradhaman is chilled,if so, thin it out using cow's milk.

This is my first trial at making a pradhaman. Mini aunty makes good parippu pradhaman and I've watched her making it once,a long time ago. It seemed simple enough but when I had to make it for the potluck, I was blank.I remembered her roasting the dal but other than that, nothing! So I set out to make my own,which is what you saw above.We really liked it. The colour, like I mentioned before was pale due to the light coloured jaggery that I got from the Indian store here.
Vaava is a big time pradhaman/ payasam lover! So he definately did get a good share of this.Hope you all had a great Onam...we sure did!

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Comments:

Edo Amma's recipe is somewhat like this only. She doesn't add ginger and cinnamon though. Here at my in laws we use cumin though. Here we cool and wash the parippu after roasting then pressure cook it then add thin milk then melted jaggery and so on. But the end result tasted just like Amma's. yummmmmy

I made this a few days back & it came out really well....the recipe is perfect but I feel u must add tht the moong dal shd be pressure cooked to atleat 5-6 whistles otherwise it will take a long time if we just boil it.